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Raising the Bar: Dream Game Contest now $10K

Name:	Dave Young
Date Posted:	Mar 07, 2007
Rating:	4.0 out of 5
Public:	YES
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Blog post

In this blog we pre-announced the upcoming 1 year Dream Game contest.

Updates:
We've raised the bar with an additional sponsor, and the grand prize is now $10,000.
The contest entry date has also been moved to 4/1/2007. An odd day for a beginning, but it's no April Fool's.
NDAs will be signed by required parties to protect your intellectual property.

"Some people do not suffer fools gladly".

Also, a clarification that the contest will allow games built using (as a base) Torque game engines (TGE, TGB, TGEA, TorqueX) and the use of content packs is allowed, indeed encouraged as they significantly reduce development time. Products like ArcaneFX, Gryphon (previously known as MMO Enhancement Kit)/MMOKIT, and Titas will also greatly reduce the coding burden.

We will be hopefully announcing some new products by Dream Games soon which will also jumpstart your game development in a big big way!

Most of the points in the contest are awarded to get teams to adhere to good game design/team/project principles, so any team participating in this contest is going to learn quite a bit about getting the job done right.

It's time to show the world and your fellow Indies what you can do given the right tools and the motivation.

If you want to chat with us about the contest or come hang out with a great Torque community, come by IRC!

irc.mydreamrpg.com
#MyDreamRPG

Dream Games, Inc.

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Mathieu (Mar 07, 2007 at 12:31 GMT)

Will there be 2nd and 3rd prizes too?
Edited on Mar 07, 2007 12:33 GMT

Christian S (Mar 07, 2007 at 12:34 GMT)

Jeez!

You never stop amazing me Dave. Im pretty sure that this is going to be a blasting contest, as well as a devfeast for sure.

Sideeffects such as raising dead coders, dormant projects and boosting the sale/use of content packs will be good im pretty sure.

Thanks for stirring the pot in a good way man!

Brian \\\"Cybore\\\" Smith (Mar 07, 2007 at 12:34 GMT)

This keeps getting better and better. I'm sure it will draw alot of talent. It will definately be something to keep an eye on.

Kevin McLaughlin (Mar 07, 2007 at 13:17 GMT) Resource Rating: 5

$10k? Yikes!

I'll echo Mat's question - with that big a prize, are there 2nd and 3rd prizes too?

Dave Young (Mar 07, 2007 at 13:19 GMT)

2nd/3rd prizes are still in the works and pending security of additional sponsorship.
Edited on Mar 07, 2007 13:19 GMT

David Montgomery-Blake (Mar 07, 2007 at 16:22 GMT)

NICE! I bet this really ups the bar! How totally cool! Great job as always!

Todd Pickens (Mar 07, 2007 at 17:22 GMT)

Congrats guys, this is really shaping up.

Gustavo Munoz (Mar 07, 2007 at 18:14 GMT)

Wow, this is beginning to look really interesting ... ;)
Very nice initiative, you guys are doing a fantastic job at MMORPGKIT, keep it up.

Gustavo M

Benjamin L. Grauer (Mar 07, 2007 at 21:03 GMT)

I have questions : if we are already making a game that's not yet close to alpha (no real content), but with some features made, can we still register to the contest ?
And, if we have also a side-project, can we register 2 games for one team ?
Edited on Mar 07, 2007 21:04 GMT

Andy Hawkins (Mar 07, 2007 at 23:43 GMT)

Erm... so when you say Team... can it be a team of 1? You see I don't have any friends :) I would like to enter this, but as a lonewolf if that's okay?

Ashley Kelley (Mar 07, 2007 at 23:55 GMT)

A team of 1 is ok but a whole lot of work. As for the previous questions I think Dave will have to answer the specifics of what is acceptable.

Dave Young (Mar 08, 2007 at 00:18 GMT)

"Not in significant stages of development"
It can't be something that a good dev could put together within a couple week's time. We expect people have some experiments and beginnings laying around, and hopefully the good beginnings of a design doc, but something a team has been working on for 3 months, or a single person for longer, is not a fair entry. The idea is to take the concept from soup to nuts, and learn some lessons while it gets done. I know this is a little bit fuzzy, but the length of the contest will level the field somewhat, as will the rest of the requirements.

We want entries close enough to their beginnings that they will experience, benefit from, and share the process of the entire game development cycle with the rest of the Indie world. We're all meant to learn from these projects, as much as possible!
Edited on Mar 08, 2007 00:21 GMT

Frank Carney (Mar 08, 2007 at 02:58 GMT)

Okay, you have seen my posts on my life algorithm. Is that too far along? I am barely getting started in my opinion.

Tom Feni (Mar 08, 2007 at 03:16 GMT)

guess I am out...
well I definatey will be watching this anyways.. :)

TomFeni

Dave Young (Mar 08, 2007 at 17:16 GMT)

After further consideration, we are going to have to relax the "significant stages of development" requirement quite a bit. After all, we allow the use of 3rd party mods/kits, and its a strawman argument to say that you sell yourself your own mods which you developed.

This better fits the spirit:
Game can't have been a previous contest winner in any contest, and game cannot have been published already or be in consideration to be published.

Andy Hawkins (Mar 08, 2007 at 22:39 GMT)

I think if people track the evolution of the game on a website it will be evident whether they are starting with an unfair advantage or not. I think this will serve as a basis of judgement when scoring the games. If the judges think the developers started with too much, and are not within the spirit of competition they can choose not to let them win. It's a political thing, but then, isn't everything?
Edited on Mar 09, 2007 22:55 GMT

bank (Mar 08, 2007 at 22:50 GMT)

Dave, can I apply to this contest? AfterWorld :)
Just joking!
wanted to say - hey, you are doing really great!
It will be very interesting to have a look at the progress :)
... hope to find some time for getting my hands on your pack..

Robert Nash (Mar 09, 2007 at 03:24 GMT)

This couldn't have come at a better time; my grant just rolled in on Monday count me in.
Edited on Mar 09, 2007 03:28 GMT

Nathan Snell (Mar 09, 2007 at 04:32 GMT)

You mentioned all of the Torque Engine's, is using TNL also permitted?

James Laker (BurNinG) (Mar 09, 2007 at 08:04 GMT)

$10K... wow... That is awesome.

Norv Brooks (Mar 09, 2007 at 22:31 GMT)

Dave - this is new to me; I haven't read about your contests before. I'm curious as to why Dreams Game, Inc is running this contest. What happens to the game, its IP at the conclusion of the contest? I'll watch for your future postings on this contest.
Norv

Jonathon Stevens (Mar 14, 2007 at 21:25 GMT)

This can be any game type? MMO/RPG/FPS/RTS?

Can we submit more than 1 game? After the Dream Build Play contest, we have an MMO, an RTS and an FPS all in the works along with a couple casual games here at Last Straw, so need to know how many I can submit or if I need to pick one.

Andy Hawkins (Mar 14, 2007 at 22:43 GMT)

There is this stated at the top

Quote:
NDAs will be signed by required parties to protect your intellectual property.

You want to keep your IP at all costs. Just grant people such as Dreamer and co. the right to publicise (ize) the game.

@Dreamer and co - can we get started on preproduction yet? Drawings, maps, sketches etc?

Dave Young (Mar 15, 2007 at 01:25 GMT)

The point about the NDA is to make sure you are protected, and us as well. There's nothing involving publishing the game :)

(Also, Dreamer is not involved with Dream Games, Inc. anymore) www.mydreamrpg.com/community/showthread.php?t=1357
You can submit more than 1 game if it and the team meet the requirements of the contest.
Edited on Mar 15, 2007 01:25 GMT

Jonathon Stevens (Mar 15, 2007 at 03:55 GMT)

Quote:
You can submit more than 1 game if it and the team meet the requirements of the contest.

*rubs hands together* *cracks neck*

You stated it can't be a game that has won any contests, but can it have been submitted to another contest if the building hasn't even started and wont until after April 1st? We're building 2 games for Dream Build Play which has a much shorter timeline.

The other question I have is what if it doesn't take us a year? We can't really do updates each month if the game has finished before the end of the contest.

Dave Young (Mar 15, 2007 at 11:19 GMT)

If it's not built yet then it's quite OK... If it doesn't take a year that's completely up to the team of course, the length of time is meant to give ample opportunity to get the game into as finished a state as possible. The monthly updates earn points towards a final score, so again it's up to the team if they wish to participate in that aspect. The points are awarded for the kinds of activities that promote good team/game building!

Dave Young (Mar 27, 2007 at 13:37 GMT)

We have posted an NDA and the official rules for the contest here:
1 Year Game Contest

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